


Ready Or Not, Here Comes A Friend

by RomanTheBroman



Series: College Is Peak Chaotic Dumbass Time [2]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Church is an angsty little fucker, Church is very assumptive, Gen, Light Angst, and Caboose is bad at reading people, and Caboose is just a ray of sunshine, friendship will happen, most of the reds and blues are stoners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:49:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23644912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RomanTheBroman/pseuds/RomanTheBroman
Summary: Being the RA of Blue Dorms wouldn't be that hard if a certain first year would just stop setting off the fire alarms. Church wants to stay pissed, but damn if Caboose doesn't make that hard.
Relationships: Michael J. Caboose & Leonard L. Church
Series: College Is Peak Chaotic Dumbass Time [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1680583
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30





	Ready Or Not, Here Comes A Friend

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so as you can see this series will shift perspective a lot. See the notes at the end to learn what the next part will be about.

Church and Tucker were sat opposite of each other, in equally large, yet vaguely uncomfortable, chairs in the common room of the Blue Dorms. Tucker was sitting sideways with his legs hanging off the side as he dicked around on his phone. Church was sitting near the edge of his seat eating a slice of pizza from the stack of boxes sitting between the two. There were five boxes total, and only half of the first pie had been eaten.

“So you gonna try to eat all of that or…?” said Tucker, not looking up from his phone.

“No, you dick. I’m planning on eating it throughout the week. Plus, I said you could have half of this if you want.”

“Okay, calm down, man. I was just asking a question.”

“Oh, come on. You’ve been shit talking my plan from the beginning. It took some real effort to pull this off,” he said gesturing to the empty common room.

“I’m not saying that your plan wasn’t any good or whatever. I’m just saying that you put in a lot of effort just to get five pizzas.”

“First off, I need to fill a quota. There’s a set number of how many RA events I need to have a year, so I would’ve had to do the paperwork, and fliers anyway.”

“You put up _a_ flyer.”

“Exactly! I didn’t want anyone to show up. So I broadcasted it poorly, and said this was a marathon of old black and white horror movies. It’s theme appropriate ‘cause it’s October, but boring enough to make sure no one would show up. Then I got to use the money the school gave me for the event to buy food for a week. You could give me a little credit here.” Church honestly couldn’t understand why Tucker refused to recognize him for the genius he was.

“Worst. RA. Ever.”

Church slumped in his chair as Tucker continued to scroll through his phone. As the weird energy from the exchange grew so did the two’s discomfort. Tucker sighed and finally tore his gaze away from his phone to look at his pouting friend, “Okay man, sorry. It was a good plan.”

“Thanks,” Church relaxed a bit, “but you are taking half of this right?”

Tucker chuckled, “Yeah, I’ll take half.”

“Good, ‘cause I don’t think all of this is going to fit into my mini fridge.” The way Church saw things, everything on this campus was too expensive, so why not make them pay him every now and then; even if he didn’t always think it through.

Tucker’s laughter grew, “You’re an idiot. You know that, right?”

“Eh, say what you want. I know you love me,” Church teased. 

“Fuck you, man,” Tucker said, continuing to laugh.

“Thanks, but no thanks. You’re not my type.”

“Oh, you know what?” and without missing a beat Tucker took the pillow he was leaning on and nailed Church in the face with it.

Church readjusted his glasses as he spoke, “Fuck you, you almost made me drop my pizza.”

“Oh no, how would you ever replace your half eaten slice,” he said, gesturing to the small pizza tower between them. 

In retaliation Church picked up the pillow that he was just pelted with and threw it at Tucker. He missed by a mile. Knowing what was coming he quickly spoke up, “Don’t say anything.”

Tucker put his hands up as if that was some sort of proof of innocence, “I don’t need to at this point. You already know.”

Unfortunately, that was true. Church couldn’t aim for shit. Now, that might not be a problem that comes up in everyday life, but he spends a lot of time with Tucker. This meant that Tucker had seen him go through the grueling experience of being asked to toss something over to various strangers on campus. Be it a stray football that had the misfortune of landing at his feet, or someone thinking they’ll save time by asking Church to toss them their forgotten water bottle from a few rows away in the lecture hall. These situations always end in embarrassment, and Tucker’s unending amusement. 

Their laughter was cut short by a third voice, “I don’t know. I don’t think his aim was _that_ off.”

“Don’t try to defend him, Caboose,” Tucker said, not a hint of his previous joy to be seen. Church’s mood plummeted right alongside Tucker’s. All he wanted to do was hang out alone with his friend, and scam the school for some free food. Why did Caboose of all people have to show up?

“What are you doing here?” asked Church.

“Ah, well I’m here for the movie thing. The old movie marathon thing. You know, it was on the flyer you put up.”

God damnit. He _would_ be the only one to find it. Church hung it on the back entrance of the dorm that no one uses in an attempt to keep it hidden all while technically not breaking any rules. But it looked like Caboose was the one exception. He probably didn’t even care about the movies, and only wanted to spend time with Church. Ain’t life a bitch.

“Right, well, uh, I kinda jumped the gun on that. I don’t have any old movies to watch,” Church scrambled to come up with the next part of his cover story. On paper this was still an RA event and Caboose had every right to be here. So he couldn’t kick him out, and he knew that a lack of entertainment wasn’t going to deter a guy like him. Still, he didn’t actually want to hold a conversation with the guy, “but I got some more recent stuff on my laptop. We’re gonna watch that.”

“You guys have fun. I’m heading out,” said Tucker, already getting out of his chair.

That couldn’t happen. Church refused to be left alone with this problem child. He quickly leapt up and grabbed Tucker’s shoulder, “What are you talking about. Tonight's only getting started,” he held Tucker’s gaze. Church’s face might have been smiling, but his eyes looked desperate and pleading. Tucker must have taken pity on him, because he sat back down.

“You’re right Church. What was I thinking,” he said in a dead and sarcastic voice, “So, what are we actually going to watch?” he continued in a normal human voice.

Church had no clue. He wasn’t that into horror movies, and if you put a gun to his head he could probably only name five. He didn’t think Caboose could care less what he picked though. He was probably just happy to be around Church to begin with. He racked his brain as he took his laptop out of his bag. _Ok, forget horror_ , he thought. _Just settle for Halloween_. This broadened his choices, but only ever so slightly.

“Uh, Coraline,” he responded after a lengthy mental deliberation. He vaguely remembered seeing the movie when he was a kid. He mostly just remembered that it was a Tim Burton movie, and all Tim Burton movies are Halloween movies, and that he was really impressed that the whole thing was done with clay. If he had to watch a movie he didn’t want to watch in the first place it was going to at least be nice to look at.

“Dude, isn’t that a children’s movie?” Tucker asked.

“Oh, I like the sound of that. I don’t like horror movies,” said Caboose, smiling as he rocked on his feet. Church wished it was legal to kill a guy for being unreasonably cheerful.

“Wait, if you don’t like horror movies, why did you even show up here?” prodded Tucker in a fake cheery tone, knowing full well what that reason was. He probably just wanted to see the guy squirm under scrutiny.

“Oh, well that’s easy. Church is fun to be around.”

This guy knew no shame.

With a sigh Church moved to the tv, hooked up his laptop, and downloaded the goddamn movie. Tucker and Caboose moved closer to the tv too. Caboose sat criss crossed on the right of the couch, and Tucker chose the armchair next to it. That meant the only seat left was next to Caboose. Church briefly contemplated dragging his previous seat next to the couch, but decided not to make things more awkward than they already were. Plus he didn’t think he could move that behemoth. 

With the movie successfully pirated, he begrudgingly sat next to Caboose, and stared straight ahead at the screen as to avoid any possible eye contact. His eyes briefly darted to the right though. Tucker was on his phone. Fucking dick. Why couldn’t he be a good friend and suffer with him.

* * *

As the credits rolled none of them knew how to proceed. Church looked at his friend, wondering if he was thinking the same thing. Tucker looked back at him, and there was an immediate understanding.

“Who the fuck decided this was okay to show children,” Tucker said, voicing their shared conclusion. 

“Yeah, I don’t remember it being that creepy.”

“Wait, so you’ve seen this before, but don’t remember the demonic eyeball gouging mom duplicate?”

“To be fair, I never saw the whole thing before,” Tucker looked like he wanted to strangle him.

Church was going to continue to defend his actions when he noticed Tucker looking over his shoulder. He turned to see what was so interesting, and it was Caboose. 

Not only was the guy normally super cheery, but he was also roughly six foot and kinda buff. That was why it looked so weird to see him clutching a pillow to his chest as he tried to curl in on himself. Now, Church didn’t give two shits about him, but he was his RA and the dude looked to be in a bad way. Like, the poor guy’s face was white as a sheet and his eyes had a thousand yard stare. Church may have been an asshole, but he wasn’t heartless.

“You okay there, Caboose?” Church asked.

Without tearing his gaze away from the screen he replied, “That was not neat.”

Church looked to Tucker for help. He only shrugged in response. He looked back to Caboose. “You want to watch something happy?” is all Church could think of saying.

Caboose nodded.

“Cool,” and with that Church got up and pulled up a vine compilation. He wanted to calm the guy down, but that didn’t mean he wanted to watch an entire other movie with him.

As Tucker and Church quoted along to their favorite vines, Caboose started to relax. By the end of the video he still didn’t look like his usual self, but he wasn’t holding onto the pillow for dear life anymore. That was good enough for Church so he gathered his things and headed out. Tucker followed suit, leaving Caboose alone in the common room. 

The two of them were feeling pretty lazy, and only took a few hits behind their building before deciding to turn in. Neither of them were worried about how careless they were being. If someone decided to report it they’d take their complaint to Church, and it’s not like he was going to turn himself in. Maybe Tucker was right. He was a pretty shit RA at times. Whatever, the world was a dumpster fire, and this was only a minor abuse of power at best. As long as he wasn’t anyone’s main problem what did it even matter anyway?

When Church got back to his dorm his head hit the pillow and then there was nothing. Everything was black and dreamless thanks to the weed. It was just the way he liked it, and just what he needed. Unfortunately, his peaceful death simulation was cut short by the blairing of alarms. He jumped bolt upright in surprise. That feeling faded as soon as he was awake enough to process what he was hearing. It was the fire alarms. Again. He felt a flash of rage, but that quickly shifted to apathy. He was so used to hearing the fire alarms at this point that he wished that he'd be consumed by a blazing inferno rather than hear that insufferable screech one more time. Unfortunately, dying in his bed sounded like a death more suited to Grif, and Church would be damned if he lowered himself to Grif’s standards. So he begrudgingly put on his slippers and hoodie and headed outside. 

As Church stood in the courtyard he wished he had grabbed something warmer. He was wearing his faded blue hoodie and the cold wind was cutting right through it. He tried to ignore how cold he was and took to watching the other students stumbled out of the dorm. This was such a regular occurence most of them no longer looked angry at this bullshit. They had a dead look that Church was certainly wearing himself. Sure, a few were loudly complaining, but it almost seemed half-hearted. This was simply their routine at this point. The fire alarms can and will go off at any point of time and there’s little they could do to stop it.

Church continued to scan the crowd and locked eyes with Tucker the second he stepped out of the building. Tucker slowly weaved through the crowd to get to Church. He was tightly bundled and could barely keep his eyes open. 

“Dude, you’re fully dressed. Did you sleep in your jeans or something?” asked Church.

“I’m not a masochist like you, Church. I’m not gonna freeze my ass off just because a little bit of smoke set off the fire alarm.”

“How am I a masochist?” Church demanded.

“I don’t know. How warm is that hoodie?”

They stared each other down until Church let out a relenting, “Fuck you.”

Tucker didn’t give him the satisfaction of a response. He just made a noncommittal humming noise and leaned against his friend. His head was resting on Church’s shoulder. Normally, Church would try to shake him off. Tucker made a dumb comment and he shouldn’t be rewarded for it by being allowed to take a nap on him, but Church had been doing his best, and failing, at ignoring how cold he was so he was quietly thankful for the extra heat. He did let out a grumble though. He at least had to pretend that he didn’t like this. 

A few minutes passed. All the dorm residents had now gathered outside, and the fire department finally showed up. The sooner they gave the all clear, the sooner he could go back to his bed. He probably wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep though. He had one shot and it was thrown away because why wouldn’t it. Luck just wasn’t on his side. Ever. 

And as if his luck couldn’t get any worse, he spotted Caboose. He wasn’t making his way to Church though, thank god. He was actually mid conversation with security and a firefighter. At first he looked really excited, but the more the security guard and firefighter spoke the more it looked like he wanted to curl up and die. Served him right. If the fire alarm went off in Blue Dorm, it was a ninety nine percent chance Caboose caused it. He needed to learn from his mistakes.

“How many fines do you think he racked up?”

“Huh?” Church was so lost in thought he didn’t realize his friend, still glued to his side mind you, was watching him and his gaze. 

“The first time or so he must’ve been given a slap on the wrist, but after that? Wonder how he’s paying all of that. Or why he’s not expelled?” Tucker continued. 

“Rich parents,” he replied flatly. 

Tucker let out a half-hearted chuckle, “You’re probably right.” A moment of silence passed, “You think you could get away with something like that?”

“Please, my dad would kill me long before the proper authorities got to me.” Out of all his friends Tucker knew the most about his shit bag father, but that wasn’t saying much. Church didn’t like talking about his family in general, so the little he did tell him was way more than most would ever hear. Tucker knew that Church’s dad was a single parent, on the school’s board, and never cared about Church as a person, just as an asset. 

Thinking about all this just made Church feel shittier than he already did. God, he wished he was still in his dark dreamless sleep. As if feeling his discomfort Tucker snuggled closer into Church’s side. The affection made Church feel less like a human disaster. He still would’ve like to be unconscious as all fuck though.

As time ticked slowly on, more and more students started to peel off. Most likely to find a new place to sleep so they didn’t feel like they were dying when they had class tomorrow. It was a Tuesday night after all. The ones who stuck around looked antsy. A few even took to glaring down Caboose. He didn’t blame them. If it weren’t for him this wouldn’t be a goddamned regular occurrence. Caboose didn’t notice though. He was still talking with the security guard. The kid looked goddamned depressed. If Church wasn’t pissed at him he might’ve actually felt a twinge of sympathy. But that wasn’t that case and so he didn’t. 

The security guard walked away and gave the students the all clear to go back inside. Everyone began to grumble as they pushed and shoved. All patience and civility died long ago. When Church finally got back to his room he curled up in bed, but couldn’t sleep, just like predicted. Insomnia was a fucking bitch. He considered smoking again but he didn’t really want to go through the effort of either going back outside or making sure he didn’t set off the alarm in his room. In the end he just absentmindedly watched let’s plays until he lost consciousness close to seven am. His alarm woke him three hours later. He had a physics lecture to get to, and he wanted nothing more than to die. 

* * *

“Hey, the lecturer's over. Are you going to start moving or…” asked a voice. Church shook himself off and looked up at Simmons. He looked a mixture of annoyed and concerned. 

“Uh yeah,” Church said as he awkwardly got up to leave with him. 

“So, think I can look at your notes?” Church asked.

Simmons looked offended at the suggestion, “No, you should’ve been paying attention.”

“Oh come on. The fire alarm went off at three last night a-”

“I know. I live across the courtyard,” Simmons deadpanned.

Church knew that when Simmons was upset that he got super petty, so he just chose to ignore it for now, “anyway I couldn’t fall back asleep. I’m just happy I actually made it to class, but I zoned out. So, can I see your notes?”

“No. Either try to figure it out from the syllabus or ask someone else.”

Again, Church knew by now it was no use talking to Simmons when he’s like this, and yet, “God, what’s with you. You‘ve been bitchy since Saturday?” Simmons had a slight stutter in his step at the remark and a flash of panic was visible on his face for a mere moment. As soon as he recovered, his face became hard and expressionless.

“Fuck you,” is all he had to say in return.

Their friend group was still unsure on what happened with Simmons that night after they were done smoking. All they knew was that he was seen completely disheveled outside Grif’s room Saturday morning. They all had theories, but the fact that Grif wasn’t acting any differently put a hole in most of them. Regardless of what was going on, Church enjoyed egging on his friend.

He could try to blame his aggression on his lack of sleep, but he knew that wasn’t completely true. Sometimes it just felt good to start shit.

“Whatever, it’s not like I need to try that hard anyway. Mentally missing one class won’t make that much of a difference.” Simmons didn’t take the bait so they walked in silence until they parted ways. Simmons went to the library, and Church walked back to his room alone.

Once inside he was at a loss on what to do with himself. He was too tired to do anything productive, but not tired enough to take a nap. He was stuck in exhaustion purgatory. In the end he ate some of the pizza he had hoarded in his mini fridge, and played Minecraft.

* * *

It took roughly a week for Church to get out of his funk. Not being woken up in the middle of the night by the blaring of alarms was a small help in that situation. Sadly, by this time he realized that he was completely out of toothpaste. He knew that he was running low and meant to get some sooner, but life’s bullshit made it too easy to forget simple things like that. It was too much of a hassle to go into town for just one thing so he made his way to the school bookstore.

Church wasn’t in a good mood, but he wasn’t in a bad one by any means. That is, until he walked into the bookstore.

“Church! Hi!” rang out a sickeningly happy voice, and sure enough, it was Caboose. It would’ve been bad enough to just run into the guy, but he also appeared to be the cashier. Church looked around for an excuse not to acknowledge his problem child. 

They were the only two in the store.

In that moment of Church thought _fuck it_ , pretended like he didn’t notice Caboose, and went to grab some toothpaste. He took more time than necessary choosing which one to get, but he was just procrastinating. After staring at the same three options for what felt like an eternity and not long enough he picked up a tube of Crest and made his way to the register. 

As Church was making his way back over he noticed that Caboose was attempting to subdue the enormous grin on his face and act… casual? At the very least he was trying not to show just how excited he was to see Church. Emphasis on trying. For all his effort he could not stop fidgeting. 

“Hi Church! Um, so, how are you?” Each word was oddly punctuated. Like he was trying not to talk too fast, but ended up forgetting how people actually talked.

Church placed the toothpaste on the counter, “I’m fine.”

“Neat! I'm doing well too.” The big obnoxious smile was back, and Caboose made no move to scan the toothpaste. Church was being held hostage in this conversation.

“Do you actually work here, or are you filling in for a friend or…” if Church was being forced into this interaction he was going to at least figure out if he can ever go back to the bookstore.

“Yup! I was given this job the other day. It was the school’s idea, and, I mean, it’s not that fun, but I like it.”

Against his better judgement Church sought clarification, “What do you mean it was the school’s idea?” 

Caboose seemed happy that their conversation wasn’t one sided for once. He started bouncing on the balls of his feet, “Oh well, the fire department isn’t happy with the school, and that made the school unhappy with me, and that made things very complicated with fines and how they should be paid, but I’m like a really good engineering student so a deal was made. I don’t completely understand the deal, but now I get to work here and only pay a fraction the fines.”

That was… a lot to take in. Church’s mind tried to make sense of everything that was said, but between the clearly missing details and the absurdity of the situation, that was a pretty tall order, “So you’re getting a laxed punishment because you’re a ‘good student’?” 

“Yeah, pretty great, right?” this wreaked of having rich parents. Someone was getting paid off so this disaster didn’t get expelled. 

“Yeah, great. You gonna ring me up or what?”

“Oh, right. Sorry,” not a hint of actual remorse evident in his voice.

Church didn’t make another noise until he was halfway back to his dorm. At that point he cursed at the top of his lungs in frustration. Fuck whoever was around to hear. Fuck everything. How is it that a fuck up like that could get away with anything, but Church was always either always walking on eggshells, or hoping that everything would just implode already. He knew that the second he fucked up his dad would stop paying for anything he needed, but he also hoped he’d just cross the line already so he could stop living in fear. So there he was in a lose-lose battle, as that fucking bastard did whatever the fuck he wanted and only getting a slap on the wrist for it. Church was seeing red. The second he got home he rolled a joint, and headed to the woods. He was way too sober for all of this shit.

* * *

If Church were never to see Caboose again it’d be too soon, but the universe had it out for him and their next run-in came sooner rather than later. Four days later to be exact. It was night time and Church was headed back to his dorm. He was already in a bad mood. His insomnia was kicking his ass, his much needed coffee got accidentally knocked out of his hand by a skateboarder, he lost his cigarettes and couldn’t afford a new pack at the moment, and after his professor looked at the first draft of his history paper he was told to just start over. Like that was at all helpful. So, not great. That’s why when he saw Caboose sitting outside his dorm, he was convinced that if he was ever capable of murder it’d be right now. 

Church halted in place and was about to turn around and leave, but it was too late. Caboose noticed him. “Church, you’re back!”

Great. 

“What are you doing here, Caboose?”

“Oh, well, you weren’t here so I’m waiting for you to get back.”

Church swallowed his annoyed scream and pushed forward, “No, why are you waiting for me? What do you need?”

“Well, I forgot my keys in my room and I need to call security so they can let me in, but my phone died so I figured I could borrow yours.”

Assumptive bastard, “Why? Why did you think you could borrow my phone? Also, you had no idea when I’d be home. Were you planning to just wait there indefinitely? Like, what the fuck?”

“You’re normally around so even though you weren’t I knew you’d be back soon.” Caboose just continued to sit there and look up at Church like that was obvious. Like Church was the crazy one. Like he didn’t see how fucking weird his actions were. Like he didn’t fucking understand that they weren’t friends.

“How long have you been waiting here?”

“Almost two hours.” He said this like it was nothing. Like it was a perfectly normal thing to do, and not insanely creepy. That simple reply made Church snap. 

“You know what? You know fucking what? Get your ass up and get into my room. We need to talk.” If he was going to chew this kid out it was at least going to be behind closed doors.

“Okay.” Completely unfazed by Church’s rising voice, Caboose gladly followed him in.

Church pulled out his desk chair and told Caboose to sit. Again, Caboose did this, completely unalarmed by the situation.

Church stood tall, took a deep breath and went into it, “Caboose, it’s really important to me that you understand that we are not friends. We have never been friends. I put up with you because I’m your RA. Not only do I not want you to rely on me, but you really fucking shouldn’t. Do you understand any of that?”

Caboose tilted his head in confusion, “But we are friends?”

“How! How can you say that? I’ve never once been nice to you. At most I’ve only tolerated you because I have to.”

“You have been nice though,” Caboose’s face scrunched with confusion the longer this interaction went. Church would’ve decked him by now if he was legally able to. Screw the fact that Caboose was a good six inches taller than him and looked to be in really good shape. His face was pissing Church off and he wanted to do something about it.

“When? Tell me one time I’ve been nice to you,” Church challenged

“Everyone knows I’m the one that sets off the fire alarm. They call me names and leave me mean notes at my door. You just pretend it doesn’t happen. Or when I got scared from that movie the other week. You watched funny videos with me to make me feel better. You also let me talk to you about the stuff I'm building. I know you’re not actually listening, but you let me talk to you anyway. Most people tell me to go away.”

“That doesn’t prove anything.”

“Yes, it does,” Caboose said matter of factly, “other people are mean and you’re not.”

“The fuck? Wha- No!” was all Church could get out.

He needed to think of another way to go about this. Not because Caboose was making good points, but because he was starting to realize that there was a much bigger problem here that was causing all of this other bullshit. “Caboose, that’s not me being nice. That’s just me not being a dick. There’s a huge difference.”

“But you’re angry and you’re still making an effort. That’s being nice,” Caboose looked at him like he was the one not getting what was happening here. 

Realizing this was going to be harder than he thought, Church sat down on his bed before he continued, “No, that’s not me being nice. Tolerating someone isn’t being nice. It’s just the bare minimum effort you give someone you don’t really care about. You should always expect more from friends.” Church was no longer yelling, but he hoped that his voice was still firm enough to get his point across.

“Yeah but-”

“No, Caboose. I’m sorry that everyone has been harassing you, and that people don’t like listening to you talk. That’s a lot to deal with, but you need to have higher standards for friends. Isn’t there one person who actually is happy to see you? Who listens when you speak? That’s a friend.” Hopefully with some perspective he’ll start to get it.

“My older sister, she likes talking to me. I don’t see her much now that she has her own place. She’s my friend,” he said this without hesitation. As if it was the only answer. “Other people who I talk to don’t know that I'm smart and are mean, or they know that I’m smart, but don’t like me.” His ever present smile was long gone and he no longer looked confused. He looked lost. Like mentally parsing through his interactions was isolating him from the rest of the world. He was lonely Church realized. 

“They like what you can do for them, not who you actually are,” Church supplemented, very aware of what that feels like.

“Yeah, that’s it,” he nodded his head slowly as he pieced together what he wanted to say, “I don’t like that. Like if I’m not doing what they want I’m as dumb as they think I am.”

Church was starting to feel like a dick for yelling at someone who was clearly having a hard time, but at the same time this was getting way too emotional and personal for his taste. He needed to pull the ripcord on this conversation.

“Listen, so um, I don’t really have advice on this, and I may have gone too far so, I don’t know, maybe the next time you talk to me I might, _might_ , actually listen. No promises though,” he wasn’t sure what he was saying or why, but it was all he could think of.

A weight seemed to be lifted and Caboose’s mood instantly rebounded. His gleaming smile was on full blast again. “Are you saying you want to try to be friends?”

“No, I-”

“We can get to know each other. I can tell you all about Freckles, and you can tell me… well you can tell me whatever you want. The more we learn about each other the better friends we’ll be. This will be so neat!” Caboose was bouncing in his seat by the time he was done talking, and Church was wondering how the fuck he wound up at square one again. 

“I’m gonna call security for you now,” was all Church could think of to say.

After Church ended the call he told Caboose that he should wait outside of his own room for security to show up. The second he left, Church decided that he had had enough of everything for the day and decided to just turn in early. He’d been stressed and hadn’t slept in days so the second he closed his eyes he was dead to the world. Whatever just happened was a problem for future Church now.

**Author's Note:**

> Next one will be about Grif trying figure out why his best friend has been acting strange since that night. Not gonna lie this will probably be a grimmons heavy series.


End file.
